Friday, August 7, 2009

Do NOT read if you're a fan of Roger Clemens!

Book Review: The Rocket That Fell To Earth Roger Clemens and the Rage for Baseball Immortality. It was written by Jeff Pearlman. I though this was a great read! It covers everything from his childhood, to his 20 strike-out masterpiece in 1986, to his affair with Country Music star Mindy McCready, to his alleged steroid use, to his retirements. He are just a few quotes from the book:

On an incident that occurred during the 1990 ALCS, "Clemens crossed the line when, upon being thrown out, he verbally threatened to kill the umpire. The exact words: "I'm going to find out where you live and come after you this winter."

The book quotes an article written by Mike Barnicle of the Boston Globe: "Face it: If Roger Clemens had not once been able to consistently throw a baseball 95 m.p.h. past men with bats in their hands, he would be wearing bib overalls and sitting on a milk crate at the open door of a trailer somewhere, brushing his tooth while shooing flies away from his head."

Quoting Huck Flener, a Toronto teammate of Clemens, "He was a supernova. I had never been around that type of star before. He had his own special box for his glove, because he didn't want it to be smashed in the team bag. He had a special suitcase with a glove protector inside. He also changed his jersey every inning, because Roger didn't like a sweaty jersey. So he had 15 jerseys in his locker, The rest of us had two."

On Roger Clemens getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame Pearlman writes: "...Roger Clemens must realize that he will never stand on that stage."

To be fair, the book did talk about a lot of good things that Clemens has done, visiting children in the hospital and helping out his extended family. But overall the book was very critical of Clemens. As for him getting into the Hall of Fame, I guess only time will tell. I think his only chance of making it are if people "misremember" some of the things he did.